My first Windows 8 experience

[AlainGr]

Peter, why don't you make an XXOS ? The progress you are making always amaze me

[PeterSt]

Better wait for the next thing I have in mind. At least you will all be shocked about the technique used.
How it sounds ? dunno yet.

[Gerard]

Better wait for the next thing I have in mind. At least you will all be shocked about the technique used.
How it sounds ? dunno yet.

I smell something new!!! 

[AlainGr]

Peter, from the icons you use to express your neural activity, you look MEAN ! 

[phantomax]

Peter, why don't you make an XXOS ? The progress you are making always amaze me

Alain, you said what I always thought but never dared to say.

[AlainGr]

Peter, why don't you make an XXOS ? The progress you are making always amaze me

Alain, you said what I always thought but never dared to say.

Wouldn't it be wonderful ? An exclusive OS But I guess it would help if each of us had a PC with specific components that Peter would have chosen, otherwise it would be a nightmare (all these drivers, protocols and behaviours)...

[PeterSt]

I thought I'd better share this, just in case I am not totally crazy :

Let's say that because I'm (supposed to be) ahead of the world in finding out SQ changing phenomena, I sometimes or often need your help in understanding things. For example, if I perceive A and the rest of the world also perceives A, it will be my "duty" to find out the merits of it and reason out what happens so we can proceed on it and improve again. Also, often it is not me perceiving A, but you, and it could be my turn to understand the why.
Well, I now have one at hand which baffles me. Not that I expect an answer, but the least I should do is register it, so it will be a reference for later. Here goes :

I can't get in touch with the sound of W8. I've even been thinking that no "bit perfect" output can be coming from it, because what I hear is too "strange". But, no worries, because huge SQ changes can happen my other means just the same, so I trust this still is okay. In the mean time from theory only it was my idea that W8 should be much better for SQ (possibilities) and I can do one thing only : try to reason out why what I perceive as so strange, is better and thus I must be looking elsewhere to solve the strange things. A small recap of this :

Sound is coming way much more from left and right and in a way which seems impossible. It feels like the whole "stereo phenomenon" is out of order and it just doesn't work anymore. The two speakers won't integrate. This is most noticeable in my situation when at a distance of 10 meters I walk sideways across the room, and only in the middle the stereo picture will flip in. Pass the middle, and it flips out again and being at the end of the room (width wise) I only hear the speaker opposite of me. This was not so, and the stereo picture was there wherever I was. I never listen from a sweetspot position because I don't need that, and actually aim for not needing a sweetspot. With W8 this does not work. Why ? no clue really, but I've never see such a devistating change. Ok ...

Until by pure accident I picked up something from the floor yesterday at a position which was not in the middle of the speakers, and the whole picture was there again. Could repeat it easily, and envision going down with your head to the floor up to 60cm/2ft , the sound suddenly jumping towards the sealing and suddenly both speakers could be heard. Huh ??

In the picture below you see the speaker I use; it consists of two horns and time alignment between the two can be calibrated by moving forward or backward the top horn. Alignment for what we may call a "meeting point" of the two can be arranged for by means of changing the tilting angle of the top horn. So it can point more down or upwards.

I reckoned that that when suddenly the best sound is perceived from listening at close to floor level, I should be able to achieve the same by means of letting the top horn point more towards the ceiling. So I changed this by about 1 degree - almost nothing.

And so I now could walk across the room and again have the stereo picture everywhere.
The strain of all that impacting "sharp" highs went away with it also. Or at least for the two more albums I played. The sound never bothered me again, and whether it was now better than W7 overall - I guess I could not pay attention to that. I was too much puzzled by what the heck could make this happen. Well, the other way around, because I guess such a thing can easily happen when you have it aligned wrongly, but why with W8 only ?

I don't know.
Again I say that all seems to be way more sharply output. Remember, sharp as in super lean, accurate and beamed. Earlier last night (before the change) I had been listening to Neil Young's Greendale (just Redbook) which I regard one of the best for SQ. Never before cymbals were so clear and real. Never before I heard Neil Young's voice getting closer and farther away from the microphone all the time. But also never before I got totally annoyed by his voice being so forward, anf again never before I was happy that an over 10 minute track was finished. It strains. All so good, but not right.
This was before the 1 degree change, and I didn't listen to Greendale again (hate A-B) but I'm sure things have improved. Can even be optimal, but that needs more listening.

The FACT that all is PERCEIVED so sharp, does not tell it really is. It sounds like it, but it may not be at all. I mean, when I align the speakers differently and suddenly all changes ? But still it must be so that this originates from again better accuracy and "more lean" waves. As I told earlier, they won't even integrate anymore. Well, did not, because of an actual misalignment of the speakers I could never notice before ?

I only applied one change to the speakers. Just a hunch. But now I don't know what's to be done more. Chances that I did this 100% right are the most small. But one thing -by now- seems clear to me : Windows 8 can get you into troubles. But now hunt for the culprit. This is not XXHighEnd settings. Oh, you can remove the strain by the higher SFS settings, but the music gets dull from it. More than with W7.

I think I am finished with this now. Next is your help please. I won't say "and especially NOS1 users please", but it should be so that they will be able to contribute better. But they also may run into these "problems" earlier.
At least it is the most intrigueing ...
I will put out a for W8 optimized XXHighEnd version soon (today or tomorrow) and can provide a NOS1 driver from off today (ask via email please).

Peter


PS: When you still have my other posts in mind and especially those which wonder about the phenomenon of being right in front of one speaker at 1m distance, clearly hearing the other one just as well (which is all quite inconsistent in the whole story) ... I was sitting on the floor there ...

[CoenP]

Peter,

Maybe the sharp sound has to do with the smaller sweetspot. All speakers beam the hf more than mf. For some psycho-acoustic reason me may miss clues to the sound location if the sound is out of balance (we might prefer some missing or out of phase frequencies). Just a little tilt may make this missing audible again.

Just a hunch.

I've had problems with an inconsistent stereo image when using mono amplifiers and polarity of the powerplug.

Regards, Coen

[AlainGr]

Peter,

Have you tried the WASAPI with W8 ? Just to check if it sounds the same as what you describe with KS ? I guess it will be alike, but just in case ?

Alain

[Diede]

Yesterday I installed W8, XXHE 0.9z-8-1, and received the NOS driver from Peter. By the time I got everything up and running it was too late to listen as the children were already a sleep.
This morning I had a first chance to listen for about an hour and a half, and Oh boy what an improvement to my ears and my system.

I’ve been a NOS1 owner for over a year, and have been using XXHE since v6.
Although I didn’t post much (and this being my first posting on SQ), I have been reading all new posts on a daily basis. 
At that time most peoples on the forum were using Peter’s settings with high SFS (430) and Q1 = 30.
I personally never liked these settings as they represented a very sweet and delicate sound, very musical and with lots of transients, but somehow to sweet and not realistic to my ears.

Having had some experience with live music (playing and mixing) the attack of the strings or cymbals just wasn’t there, and the sound as a result became a bit dull or veiled. I found myself more and more listening to live recordings as these are more vivid than studio recordings, I guess to compensate.

I had my SFS down to 4 and Q1=14 (this was back with version 6). But the trade-off was that some of those transients and musicality got lost.

Even if to me XXHE was the best in the market for SQ back with V6 already, these last few months it has been getting better and better, and with each new version Peter brings out a vast improvement in SQ (PA, XTweaks, and now W8).

Although I haven’t been able to fine-tune the XXHE settings yet, as of the first note I could hear more detail, better timing, better attack of cymbals, strings etc, more black background, tighter bass and less distortion, but this time without the trade-off of musicality, transients etc.

To me W8 is indeed more sensitive to the sweet spot phenomenon, but this also depends a lot on the recording. As I always listen in the sweet spot, this doesn’t bother me much, on the contrary timing and position of each instrument has improved.

This is just my impression in my system and with limited listening time with W8, but I would encourage everyone to try for themselves, as for me it was certainly worthwhile.

Given the fact that my audio PC is clearly not the most optimal for XXHE, I haven’t tweaked the XXHE settings yet, and we just got started with W8, I have no doubt that there is still room for improvement in my system. Now isn’t that something nice to look forward too while enjoying the great SQ from 0.9z-8-1 and W8 in the meantime.

Thank you so much Peter!

[stefanobilliani]

Hi all ,

I did try the W8 version ( W8 pro 64 bit ) , all is working as intended with the exception of the cover art behaviour when in unattended , also when the OS is minimized .

I do like the sound , very smooth , good rhythm ,  relaxed .

[stefanobilliani]

Hi all ,

I did try the W8 version ( W8 pro 64 bit ) , all is working as intended with the exception of the cover art behaviour when in unattended , also when the OS is minimized .

I do like the sound , very smooth , good rhythm ,  relaxed .

Anyway , can't exactly say why ,probably something was better in W7 .....

[CoenP]

Hi,

Of someone is interested in upgrading to win 8 the official way, he or she may better do that before the end of the month. Windows has planned to revert to their normal pricelevel.

Regards, Coen

[PeterSt]

... which is 5 times higher. In the US already so yesterday, I was told.

[PeterSt]

Hi Stefano,

I did try the W8 version ( W8 pro 64 bit ) , all is working as intended with the exception of the cover art behaviour when in unattended , also when the OS is minimized .

Maybe I did not state that clear enough in the Releas Notes (did I ever ?), but this is not possible in W8 at this moment (or maybe never - I couldn't find a solution yet).
What can be done though, is not use the Wallpaper, but "draw" it myself. But this is for later.

Peter